The IIT Boeing Scholars Academy invites members of the IIT community to volunteer as interviewers in mid- to late March to help us determine the next class of scholars. Please find additional details below, and contact Marya Spont (mspont@iit.edu, 312.567.5193) or Connie Ma (yma24@iit.edu, 312.567.3005) with any questions.
More than 300 high-achieving, diverse sophomores from more than 100 Chicago-area high schools have applied to join the IIT Boeing Scholars Academy’s 2013-15 cohort! All have submitted our application form, a critical essay, two recommendations, and a transcript, and approximately half will soon be invited to IIT’s campus for a finalist interview. Please consider volunteering a few hours of your time in mid- to late March to help us interview these outstanding young people!
The basic objective of interviewing is to help program staff distinguish between many highly qualified candidates, especially to gauge each finalist’s “fit” for the program and to ascertain any important information not reflected in the application file. Interviewers engage the student in conversation for 20-25 minutes, using supplied sample questions to gauge each applicant’s critical thinking skills, curiosity, motivation for higher education, inclination toward leadership and service, and “need” (broadly defined) for a program like ours. Interviewers provide program staff with brief notes about each conversation and a recommendation of “enthusiastically support,” “support with reservation,” or “do not support.” This feedback is essential as we make final decisions on each applicant. We will provide more detailed guidelines prior to the first day of interviewing.
This year’s interviews will take place in the following timeslots (many of which fall during the CPS spring break), where the first time listed is the start-time and the last is the end-time (i.e., if it ends at 6, the last interview slot is 5:30). We schedule interviewers for a 30-minute break roughly every 2 hours (~every 4 interviews) so they can catch up on notes and gather their thoughts. All interviews will take place on IIT’s campus (near 33rd and State Streets, in Chicago), and we provide whatever meal falls into the range of times. Please know that we do NOT expect interviewers to volunteer for all hours on a given date; even a few hours here and there really help! Our 2013 interview times are:
Sunday, March 10, 10am-6pm
Saturday, March 16, 10am-6pm
Monday, March 18, 4-8pm
Tuesday, March 19, 4-8pm
Thursday, March 21, 4-8pm
Monday, March 25, 10am-5pm
Tuesday, March 26, 5-8pm
Wednesday, March 27, 10am-5pm
If applicable, email Connie Ma (yma24@iit.edu) to let us know for which times on which dates you can commit to interview. We are grateful for your time, insight, and support!